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WYPX
WYPX-TV, virtual channel 55 (UHF digital channel 50), is an Ion Television owned-and-operated television station licensed to Amsterdam, New York, United States and serving New York's Capital District (Albany–Schenectady–Troy) as well as Berkshire County, Massachusetts. The station is owned by Ion Media Networks. WYPX-TV's offices are located on Charles Boulevard in Guilderland, and its transmitter is located on New York State Route 30 near the Montgomery–Fulton county line. The station can also be seen on the eastern fringes of the Utica market. History The station signed on the air in 1987 as an independent station under the call letters WOCD. It was owned by Amsterdam Broadcasting, a subsidiary of Coit Services of San Francisco, California, and was leased to Christian Community Television (CCT) of Schenectady, New York. CCT faced financial troubles from the outset and they soon fell behind on their payments, so Amsterdam Broadcasting reassumed control of the station. The station went dormant in 1989, but in 1991, Coit struck a deal to sell the station to Tennessee TV executive Wade Griffith for $1.8 million. Griffith would have relaunched the station as WNSI, but the deal fell through, and WOCD was sold to Cornerstone Television, a religious broadcaster, for $375,000 in 1992. The second incarnation of WOCD had problems getting cable carriage in much of the market which combined with the looming conversion to digital television led the station to be sold again. In 1997, Paxson Communications (predecessor to today's Ion Media) bought WOCD from Cornerstone, moved the station's offices from Scotia, New York to Guilderland, and made the station an outlet for the Infomall Television Network (inTV). The call sign was changed to WYPX on January 13, 1998; however, the new calls confused some people as there was a radio station with a similar call sign in the Albany market. WYPX became a charter station for the Pax TV network when it launched on August 31, 1998. WYPX also added a secondary affiliation with UPN on October 5, 1998, airing the network's programming in late night hours following Pax's primetime programming. WVBG-LP (channel 25), a low-power station in Albany, also joined UPN as a primary affiliate the same day; the affiliation deal with WYPX was made before the network agreed to affiliate with WVBG (as Albany had no UPN affiliate at the time, though area cable systems imported WSBK-TV from Boston). WYPX retained its secondary UPN affiliation despite WVBG's affiliation; however, UPN programming disappeared from channel 55 in 1999. In 2001, WYPX entered into a joint sales agreement with Hubbard Broadcasting, owner of NBC affiliate WNYT (channel 13); under this arrangement, WNYT sold advertising time on WYPX, while WYPX aired replays of WNYT's news and public affairs programming. Paxson terminated all joint sales agreements involving its stations in June 2005 as part of its relaunch of Pax TV as i: Independent Television. Category:Ion Television affiliated stations Category:Amsterdam NY Category:Albany NY Category:Schenectady Category:Troy Category:New York Category:Channel 55 Category:1987 Category:Television channels and stations established in 1987 Category:Ion Media Category:Former independent stations Category:Former Cornerstone affiliates Category:Former inTV affiliates Category:Former PAX Affiliates Category:Former UPN affiliates Category:UHF Category:Ion Television New York Category:Ion Television Pennsylvania Category:Television stations in Pennsylvania